Well, I made the plunge today and bought a safe. A locksmith company carries Liberty brand. Went in to look at the lower end, less costly one and went out with mid range more expensive one. Bought the Franklin series 60.5x30x27.5, 700 lbs. Has the built in plug for the dehumidifier, door cover to store handguns and other misc stuff, electronic opener (not sure if like that or not).Has the thicker pins and 1 hour fire rating. Beautiful safe and about $500 more than wanted to pay, but I think worth it. Triker

Bought a new safe today with electronic keypad and a pair of extra long keys for use if the keypad fails. Unloaded and uncrated it. Got it opened up and read the manual. Checked out the contents to make sure every thing was included that is supposed to be. Got the appliance hand cart in position and then to make sure I did not misplace anything, put everything inside, then shut the door...........................................!!!

In addition to some other good posts here, I will add my take. As a police officer I have seen a lot of safes removed from the home entirely so they can be opened elsewhere without the threat of being surprised by a homeowner, neighbor or law enforcement. It takes a little preparation and planning, but the thief who will take your entire safe is not one that decides to burglarize your house at the spur of the moment or chooses the location out of sheer convenience of opportunity. To combat this approach, I built a closet around my exterior safe dimensions to hide the safe and to make it extremely difficult to remove it with a heavy duty dolly. Then I bolted it to the concrete slab with 5/8 lag bolts. The closet does not provide room to rock the safe enough to uproot the bolts, tip it forward on a dolly or give enough clearance for a pry bar. It has to be rolled out of the closet on pipes or dowels. Obviously if thieves were motivated enough, they could get it out given enough time to do so. Hope this helps.

Bought a new safe today with electronic keypad and a pair of extra long keys for use if the keypad fails. Unloaded and uncrated it. Got it opened up and read the manual. Checked out the contents to make sure every thing was included that is supposed to be. Got the appliance hand cart in position and then to make sure I did not misplace anything, put everything inside, then shut the door...........................................!!!

Tomorrow morning (Tues 17 Feb) the manufacture is supposed to e-mail me the combo. I had to write a letter stating I owned the safe and have it notorized. Included the bill of sale. Shall see. I will be much slower to comment on others 'stupid" acts in the future. =) Will keep you posted.

Big Mike certainly makes some very good points. Of course the professional crook is very difficult to totally defend against if he/she wants what I have. I am mostg concerned about the Meth addicit looking for an easy heist, or the neighborhood kids being stupid. My really valuable guns are separately insured. I also have detailed records on each firearm and pictures all stored in a separate place. I also keep my ammo locked up in a completely different part of the house. Our local
PD has given us some great ideas how to keep the bad guys completely out of the house in the first place and make it difficult for those determined to try.

If any of you cop types have some good suggestions I'd love to hear them. This might even make a great thread subject. Your thoughts?

Tomorrow morning (Tues 17 Feb) the manufacture is supposed to e-mail me the combo. I had to write a letter stating I owned the safe and have it notorized. Included the bill of sale. Shall see. I will be much slower to comment on others 'stupid" acts in the future. =) Will keep you posted.

Aaah, it's probably just the default combo. I wonder if it's the same as what mine was.

Edit: Here, this lists a default combo if your lock looks like this: http://www.directsafes.com/HelpFAQ.cfm
If the mfgr doesn't get back to you as promised, a little internet searching will probably get you in, which brings up another point - make sure to change and personalize your combo.

I looked at the digital combo locks and passes for a dial tumbler type. The dealer who I bought my theftguard(Browning) had 3 digital and coud not open any of them to show me the safe.I had a few problems with the dial on my safe due to spinning the knob...DO NOT DO THIS...this will cause a sticky tumbler syndrom.due to the timblers which are packed in grease to stick. Browning customer service was outstanding and the tech walked me thru reseting my tumblers almost an hour on the phone. BTW 24 gun with golden rod deliverd 675.00
mrsnipy

I looked at the digital combo locks and passes for a dial tumbler type. The dealer who I bought my theftguard(Browning) had 3 digital and coud not open any of them to show me the safe.I had a few problems with the dial on my safe due to spinning the knob...DO NOT DO THIS...this will cause a sticky tumbler syndrom.due to the timblers which are packed in grease to stick. Browning customer service was outstanding and the tech walked me thru reseting my tumblers almost an hour on the phone. BTW 24 gun with golden rod deliverd 675.00
mrsnipy

I'm picking up a safe tomorrow with a dial. How much did you spin the dial to cause a sticky tumbler??

Hey there Southpaw, finally pulled the trigger and got it bought? Got mine anchored down today and was already loaded up with everything we wanted in it. Get it anchored, loaded and set back with somewhat peace of mind. Triker

Hey there Southpaw, finally pulled the trigger and got it bought? Got mine anchored down today and was already loaded up with everything we wanted in it. Get it anchored, loaded and set back with somewhat peace of mind. Triker

Yep, picking one up tomorrow. Putting it in a closet and lag-bolting it to the floor asap.

Safes are great things to have. Mine are all bolted down to a concrete slab.Butted up against eachother so side entry will be hard especially the middle safe.I highly recommend if you get a safe don't stop there. Get a alarm system installed.I've used ADT for years and they are on the ball.If the power goes out they call us to see what's happening.Anything shows up on the alarm they call first. If they get no answer the local police are sent out.Our system is set up if they cut the phone lines it's monitored by satellite.Once you get over the shock of the initial cost having it installed you have a monthly monitoring fee. Depending what all you have it runs about a 1.00 a day.Ours is a little more a month but we went overboard.

A Golden Rod is a must. I also added socketless fixtures and burn 2 low wattage light bulbs 24/7. I found the curl cue light bulbs last for months if not years. They don't put out as much heat as the standard light bulbs.